Blowing Waterloo's stack for green square

How it will look ... an artist's impression of how the Green Square town centre will look ater the $1.7 billion redevelopment. It will be as big as Martin Place.

Wendy Frew Urban Affairs EditorJanuary 1, 2008

WORK on the much-vaunted $1.7 billion Green Square town centre,
first mooted in the early 1990s by the Keating government, has
finally begun with the demolition of the former Waterloo
Incinerator at Zetland.

Workmen have begun pulling down the main building and a
200-tonne crane will arrive soon to knock down the chimney stack,
in the first step towards creating a civic square as big as Martin
Place, bordered with supermarkets and shops.

Situated at the intersection of Botany Road, and O'Riordan and
Bourke streets, the town centre - now just a bunch of car yards and
industrial buildings - will service a number of apartment
developments that have sprung up around the Green Square railway
station.

The project, a joint venture between the City of Sydney and
Landcom, is part of 278 hectares of land earmarked by the NSW
Government for urban renewal, one of the largest such projects in
Australia and the last area close to the city suitable for
expansion.

Along with Zetland, Beaconsfield and parts of Alexandria,
Rosebery and Waterloo have been targeted for high-density
developments that will house more than 33,000 people by 2021.

Landcom's shortlist of six companies and consortiums to complete
the first stage of the town centre comprises Lend Lease,
Citta/Babcock & Brown, CRI/Colonial First State, Mirvac, ISPT
and Leighton Properties/Devine, said the NSW Planning Minister,
Frank Sartor.

Stage one, or about 50 per cent of the total gross floor area of
the town centre, will include a mix of residential, retail and
commercial space.

Green Square has a long industrial history but as the factories
moved west, developers moved in, hoping the train and bus services
and the proximity to the city centre and eastern suburbs would
attract well-heeled tenants to their expensive apartments.

The area still lacks its own shopping district and community
facilities and has been called a ghost town by some.

However, by 2025, the town centre is expected to house about
5500 residents and 7000 workers.

It will also have a network of plazas and parks, decorated with
water features and public art, that will be able to host markets,
concerts and festivals.

It will take about six months to demolish the main incinerator
building, the chimney stack, a number of underground pits and all
other associated plant, equipment and structures, Landcom says.

The development is close to Green Square station, part of the
controversial 10-kilometre Airport Rail Link of four privately
owned stations, where fares are considerably more expensive than
for government-run lines.